The Afghan Interior Minister advises the Taliban leadership to treat the entire population with respect

May 5. (EUROPE PRESS) –

The Afghan Interior Minister, Sirajudin Haqqani, this Friday asked the Taliban leadership to carry out an integration exercise and respect the rights of the entire population so as not to alienate citizens from Islam, before considering that the “Kandahar Taliban” — the Afghan province that is the cradle of the fundamentalist movement — are not superior to members of the other ethnic group.

During the war in Afghanistan, Haqqani led the organization that bears his name; a group that has exercised a degree of autonomy from the Taliban. His integration into the current regime as head of the Interior and “deputy emir” is considered a commitment by the Taliban leader, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, to stabilize the new regime after his reconquest of the country in August 2021.

“We should behave in such a way that people love Islam or are at least interested in it, not turn this religion into something so hated that the people end up fleeing from us,” Haqqani said during the swearing-in ceremony for the new governor of Kandahar, Mohamed Ali Hanafi, thanks to a remodeling decreed by Mullah Ajundzada.

Haqqani also asked the Taliban leadership to understand the motley composition of the movement’s supporters, as well as the entire population of a country that includes more than a dozen ethnic groups apart from the Pashtuns, which make up the majority of the movement. .

“It’s not that the Kandahar mujahideen is superior to the rest. It’s a matter of leadership, like the one here. Good management means good leadership and history will honor you for it. But if you outperform, the people will suspect who leads them”, he added in statements collected by the Afghan chain Ariana.

It is not the first time that Haqqani reproaches the Taliban leadership led by Ajunzadá for certain attitudes. In February of this year, the Minister of the Interior warned that “the monopoly of power affects the reputation of the entire system”, in reference to the dominance exercised from Kandahar over the rest of the country.

The spokesman for the Taliban government and Deputy Minister of Information, Zabiulá Mujahid, limited himself to recommending, without explicitly naming Haqqani, that criticism of the Taliban emir be carried out in private.